An employee confirmed by telephone on Thursday that Rock Bottom Brewery, 740 N. Plankinton Ave., is permanently closed.
The employee said he was not told why the restaurant was closing, but said Rock Bottom was closed as of this past Monday.
A list of locations on the company's main website still has a Wisconsin section, but it is now blank.
Last year, the owner of the building, Chicago-based 3L Real Estate, announced that it would begin converting office space in the nine-story structure to residential units.
When the chain brewpub opened in Milwaukee in 1997 it had locations only in Colorado and Illinois. Later, it expanded to dozens of restaurants in nine states.
Locations in Nashville and Minneapolis have also recently closed.
The restaurants' parent company, CraftWorks Holdings, was purchased out of bankruptcy by SPB Hospitality in 2020.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
